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04/29/2010

This Chewbacca Edible Figure was sculpted from candy modeling clay. For my son's 9th birthday, my daughter and I built a LEGO Star Wars Death Star Cake. My sons all-time favorite LEGO set is the LEGO Star Wars Death Star. When we designed the cake, we realized that just having a Death Star with furniture and ships would be too plain, so we added figures.

My Chewbacca Edible Figure is based on the Chewbacca mini-fig from the LEGO Star Wars Death Star. I used the actual LEGO figure to size my figure so that mine would be approximately the same size as the LEGO mini-fig, i.e. somewhere between an inch and one-half to two inches tall. The figure looked better than the picture because the picture was taken on macro and is much larger than the actual figure.

I used Brown Powdered Food Coloring to color a small amount of the candy modeling clay to be used for the body of Chewbacca. Place a small amount of coloring onto white candy modeling clay that has been flattened somewhat and fold it over. Kneed the candy modeling clay until the all of the clay is the same color throughout.

I like to use powdered food coloring better than paste food coloring because if the paste bottles lay on their side, they tend to seep out and color their storage container. In addition, the powdered food coloring is more versatile because you can use powdered food coloring with candy as well; Paste colors do not work to color chocolate candy.

I made a basic body shape and used a knife to make slits in the bottom for legs. I made a basic shape for a head and placed the head on top of the body.

I used a toothpick to make indentions for his eyes, nose and mouth. I used Black Powdered Food Coloring mixed with a small amount of vodka to make a thick paint consistency so that I could paint the eyes, nose, and mouth black. I used a small paint brush that I only use for food. I used a Coke bottle cap to mix the vodka and the food coloring. The bottle cap works well because it is really small. You can use the paint brush to mix up the vodka and the food coloring.

I used a toothpick to make little marks in Chewbacca for his fur. I rolled out arms, used a toothpick to make a slit for his thumb. I did not do fingers separately since LEGO figures don't have fingers. I used a toothpick to make little marks in his arms for fur as well.

I shaped a small snake-like shape for Chewbacca's ammo belt. I used a toothpick to make the small indentions in the belt. I used a small paint brush (again reserved only for food) to paint the silver marks on his belt using vodka and Silver Luster Dust Food Coloring. I used vodka with the Luster Dust so that the luster dust will keep it shine. If you use water, the Luster Dust will lose its luster and will not look very good. I placed the figure on its back to dry so that it does not get shorter and dumpier while drying.

04/26/2010

This Millennium Falcon was sculpted from Rice Krispies Treats. I made this ship for my son's LEGO Star Wars Death Star Cake. My Millennium Falcon is based on LEGO's midi-scale Millennium Falcon .

I use the classic Rice Kripsies Treat recipe from the cereal box. If you don't have a copy, I've provided one here - Rice Krispies Treats Recipe. I make one minor change in the recipe, Kellogg's recipe calls for pouring the hot mixture into a pan. I pour them onto parchment paper and shape them. You must work with the Rice Krispies quickly while they are still warm. I try to keep the hot Rice Krispies Treats in a mound on the parchment paper to keep them warm longer.

Here are the steps that I went through to sculpt the ship.

Ingredients needed

Rice Krispies Treats Recipe

Rolled fondant recipe

Black powdered food color

Blue powdered food color

Red powdered food color

Mini-Vanilla wafer

We own the LEGO midi-scale Millennium Falcon, so I used it as a model and I used a picture from the LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. I also checked out Star Wars books from the library and used them for reference photos as well.

I shaped the main body of the Millennium Falcon from Rice Krispies. I used a knife to finish off the shape of the front of the ship. Do not cut too hard and cut your counter. I made a small circle for the upper quad laser cannon mount and placed it on the top of the ship and pressed down to attach it to the ship's main body. I made the cockpit from another small piece of Rice Krispies. I pressed the cockpit onto the body of the ship. Try to press them together while everything is still warm so that the pieces will stick together. Here is a top view of the ship to show how everything fits together.

Once the structure of the ship was finished, I let it dry for a day. I used the following rolled fondant recipe to make fondant to cover the ship. I colored some of the fondant gray using using black powdered food coloring. Set the fondant on the table, break off a small chunk and kneed it in your hands until it is soft and pliable. Color the fondant gray by place a small amount of gray powered food coloring into the fondant. Kneed the fondant until it is the same color throughout. Add a small amount of color at a time and add more as needed to get the color gray that you want. Remember, you can always add coloring, but you cannot take away color.

Next, make a small amount of black fondant and a small amount of red fondant using the procedure above.

To make the main sensor dish, carve out the insides of a mini-vanilla wafer so that it is just a shell. Cover it in the gray color fondant.

Be sure to place a small mound in the middle out of black fondant. Roll out a small piece of the gray fondant on a piece of parchment paper or a fondant mat. I use Wilton's Roll & Cut Mat. Do not use a fondant imprint mat, because your fondant will have a pattern imprinted on it. Cut out gray and black circles for the docking rings/emergency escape hatches.

Use brown mini M&Ms maintenances hatches, and exhaust ports and escape hatches on top of ship. Place a small piece of dark gray fondant on top of M&M's for hatches and ports or alternately, first cover the M&M's in dark gray fondant, and then place them on the ship.

Roll out red fondant and use it to make the red designs on the ship.

Use a small piece of blue fondant to make the engine in the rear of the ship. I colored some of the fondant blue using using blue powdered food coloring. Next color some of the fondant black using black powdered food coloring. Set the fondant on the table, break off a small chunk and kneed it in your hands until it is soft and pliable. Color some of the fondant black by placing a small amount of gray powered food coloring into the fondant. Kneed the fondant until it is the same color throughout. Add a small amount of color at a time and add more as needed to get the color black that you want. It may be necessary to add a little bit of spray oil to the black fondant if it starts sticking to your hands too much.

Cut several small circles for the forward flood lights and small rectangles and an x shape for the cockpit view ports.

I was talking to Mike Barrick the other day via e-mail. Mike is one of the contributors to TheForce.Net – probably the best Star Wars site on the web. Among other things, Mike maintains the Yummy Star Wars portion of TheForce.Net and has been kind enough to spotlight us three times. I made an offer to Mike to spotlight his favorite character next.

Mike chose Lando Calrissian. Apparently, in all the time Mike has been doing Yummy Star Wars, no one has submitted a Lando Calrissian cake.

So, I took-up the challenge. I searched Google … not a single Lando cake. I searched Google Images … still no Lando cakes. I searched Flickr and there still wasn't any Lando cakes to be found. While digging around the Flickr Star Wars Cake group, I finally found one Yummy Star Wars featuring an edible Lando (I ruled out those cakes where Lando was a plastic action figure). These are from dorispepsi's photostream.